Jamshed Dorab Nagarwala: Gujarat’s first IGP was in team that investigated Gandhi murder case

Jamshed Dorab Nagarwala, the first IGP of Gujarat after its birth as a separate state after on May 1, 1960, was earlier one of the two officers investigating the Mahatma Gandhi murder case. Nagarwala, who was then serving as a young deputy commissioner of police with the special branch of Bombay police, had got a call from the Union home ministry on February 17, 1948, and was told to investigate the case “threadbare”. Back then, Morarji Desai was chief minister of Bombay state.

Nagarwala was given the task of unravelling the conspiracy behind Gandhi’s assassination and identifying those who had supplied the pistol to the assassin Nathuram Godse. The home ministry had taken almost two weeks to choose Nagarwala’s name. Today, a police ground at Shahibaugh bears his name. He had been IGP for 12 years during his tenure in Gujarat.

Godse was interrogated in the records room of the special branch in Bombay. The investigation of was taken away from the Delhi police and handed over to the Bombay police by Sardar Patel himself. Interestingly, the case was transferred to Bombay as the Delhi police had failed to follow up on a previous failed attempt to kill Gandhiji at Birla House. Another reason why the case was handed over to Bombay police was that the conspiracy to kill the Mahatma was hatched in Maharashtra. During the trial, 101 witnesses were examined and 407 documents produced by witnesses.